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1993 U. Ill. L. Rev. 1007 (1993)
A Balancing Approach to the Constitutionality of Drug Courier Profiles

handle is hein.journals/unilllr1993 and id is 1019 raw text is: A BALANCING APPROACH TO THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF DRUG COURIER PROFILES STEPHEN E. HALL In an effort to win the War on Drugs, law enforcement agen- cies are using drug courier profiles to identify and detain persons who display characteristics that law enforcement agents believe are typical of drug traffickers. Using the reasonable suspicion standard, courts have upheld the use of these profiles against Fourth Amendment chal- lenges. The author of this note traces the history and development of both drug courier profiles and the reasonable suspicion standard, and concludes that the reasonable suspicion standard has been inappropri- ately applied to drug courier profiles. The author argues that the Fourth Amendment's general proscription against unreasonable searches and seizures requires courts to balance the government's need to use drug courier profiles with the intrusiveness their use has on civil liberties. According to the author, applying such a balancing test would lead courts to conclude that as they are presently being implemented, drug courier profiles are unconstitutional. In order to make drug courier profiles constitutional, the author proposes that they should be objectively codified and expressly limited in their application. I. INTRODUCTION United States Border Patrol agents stationed at the San Clemente checkpoint on Interstate 5, sixty-six miles north of the United States- Mexico border, stop a brown, 1979 Cadillac de Ville during a routine check for immigration offenses. I The driver is a man in his late twenties with shoulder-length hair and a mustache. Although he is an American citizen, the agents continue to detain the man because, in their opinion, his appearance fits that of a drug smuggler.2 A dog, trained in drug de- tection, is brought out to sniff around the outside of the car.3 The agents then inform the man that the dog detects drugs, and a full search of the car ensues.4 Drug checkpoints have proven to be a somewhat effective procedure in the continuing War on Drugs.' From a single seizure of 1.25 1. Alan Abrahamson, Border Patrol's Role in Drug War Is Under Fire, L.A. TIMES, Feb. 10, 1992, at A3, A25. 2. Id. at A3. 3. Id. at A25. 4. Id. 5. See President's Radio Address to the Nation on Federal Drug Policy, 18 WEEKLY COMP.

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